♪ east bay police are trying to unravel a killingpree that left a trail of bodies. a hercules man they shot to death after a high-speed chase may have killed four people. that includes two women whose bodies were found is morning. the suspect may be linked to the disappearance of this man. police are worried about his safety. >> an investigors say they believe the suspect killed that missing man's father as well as his own girlfriend. the bloodbath spans across at least three cities, hercules, richmo and vallejo. one ofhe two missing women's bodies were found with powerful explosives and chemicals.

we have live team coverage. terry mcsweeney is in hercules. let's begin with leslie brinkley in vallejo. >> well, a strange sceneas been unfolding all morning. one detective likened it to out of silence of the lambs. he said it was a mad scientist inside the house on this cul-de-sac. police recoved what they believe to behe bodies of two missing vallej women. >> police came to this house on upland court after last night's shoot-out in richmond because the murder suspect often rented a room here. they found the bodies of 60-year-old carol smart and 63-year-old rita allen. allen'houses are holed up in the house des spied the overwhelming stench. he's being questned by police. >> i appears the bodies have been here for several days. i could say that one body was located inside the residence and the second body was located in the backyard. >> explosives were also found on

the property. by daybreak the travis air force base bomb squad assessed the danger. there were large quantities of dynamite and c-4, ats responded. many of the explosives and chemicals we inside the house and they moved them into the backyard filled with cardboard boxes. one detective sa it was apparent someone was building bombs. 20 pounds of bomb-making chemicals were found in a locker at five-star storage in vallejo. >> how are people gettin' all this stuff? it's just ridiculous. go on the internet and get anything you want. endangers the public. >> five houses on upland court were evacuated as stuned neighbors watched. >> that's crazy >> right now 72-year-old charles writtenhouse is under arrest. he's going to face charges along the lines of those explosives found in the house. they're still investigating any connection he may or ma not have to theome side.

it's going to be an all-day project to remove the exploses from the house. they found one box in the storage locker. they may have 20 times that amount in the house to process. but atf emphasized this is no danger. these are chicals that could be mixed together for a bomb but by themselves are not likely to calls prlems for the neighbors here. this murder mystery as i said gets strangeand stranger by the hour. reporting live, leslie brinkley. >> terry mcsweeney continues our coverage in hercules where police are increasing their efforts to find the missing son of one of those murder victims. terry? >> hercules police wrapped up a news conference a few moments ago talking about the as expect this have this case, the events that happened here in hercules and that includes the homicide that started this chain of events led to last night's chase, the discovery of three more bodie but what they're reall focusing on today is a man who may still be alived. the 100 mph chase that began in pleasant hill and spanned four

counties ended in gunfire at the pacific east mal in richmond. it was here he slammed his car in the sidewalk, ran inside and grabbed a meat lever and was killed by chp gunfire when he refud to drop it. inside the vehicle the body of a woman described as his girlfriend. she had been strangled it all began saturday at this house in hercules with the discovery of the body of 73-year-old ricardo sala crime ene tape still surrounds the house. the son hasn't been seen since. an effort to locate him will be stepped up after the discovery of the two additional bodies in vallejo. >> we continue to be conceed for his safety given the nature of his relationship with e suspect and of course the discovery of his father. we'd like to speak with him and locate him. >> police had been at this house last week to break up the fight involving the suspect, the deceased father and the missing son.

neighbors didn't know about the man or the son. >> came, the police. said if you know anything. said no, don't know nothing. >> they were outside. that's all i know. >> as for the suspect, there seemed to be more questions than answers. >> we're not really sure as far as where he lived. we're not sure an occupation as well. there are outstaing questions that have yet to be answered. >> and a lot of jurisctions investigatg contra costa county sheriffs, d.a.'s office and here in hercules as well more developments expected this afternoon. cecilia veg one of the people participating in team coverage at 5:00 and 6:00. terry mcsweeney, abc 7 news. >> terry, thanks very much. stay with abc 7 news and abc7news.com for the latest developments on this murder investigation that has touched three bay area cities. >> in other news, a fremont woman is in custy at the san mateo county jail accused of

robbing at least seven banks across the bay area. la net broussard was arrested in san fransco's hunter's point she was dubbed the constrtion worker robber because she wore a hard hat and vest during each of the holdups she used a note to rob banks in san mateo, santa clara and alameda counties. >> police in oakland announced arrest for three murders that happened over th past month. investigators think these suspects are respsible for the deaths. the most recent crime happened on saturday. the body of a 64-year-old man was wrapped in a ruand dumped on the sidewalk in the city's east side. five days earlier a man was shot in killed on an a. c. terminal in oakland. august 6th a man was killed riding on the back of a bicycle shooting at a group of people. >> firefighters rescued a dog from a burning home outside hayward this morning. h. d. was over the scene on jacob's place as crews battled heavy smoke and flames.

investigators sayhey heard popping noises, walked outside and found a garage and car on fire. the resident alerted four others inside and they got out safely. the cause of the fire is under investigatioare scheduled this week for a fremont police officer who was shot and critically injured while on duty. another emergency blood drive will be ld for officer todd young today at santa clara high school. that's the schl he graduated from. the blood drive will be held at the science lecre hall between 2:15 and 6 p.m.. officer young remains in serious but stable condion after three surgeries at high land hospital in oakland. meantime andw barrientos, t suspect accused of shooti the officer, says he didn't know the person he shot was a poce officer. he's been charged with attempted murder. officer young was in civilian clothes when he and another officer tried to arrest ballen tows last week east oakland. >> tonight barbara boxer and her republican challeer carly fiorina will face off in thei

first and so far only scheduled debate. the two candidates are in a virtual dead heat. boxer has a slide lead 45% to 44% among liky voters. experts say the election wi ultimately be decided by the candidates able to win over the state dependent voters. tonight's debate starts at 7:00 at saint mary's college. >> today marks the transitn to the final phase of the iraq war. vice psident joe biden, defense secretary robert gates presided over a military changing of command ceremony in baghdad. the ceremony signals the formal end of american acombat operations in iraq. >> operation iraqi freedom is over. but american engagement with iraq will continue with the mission that began today. operation new dawn. as the name suggests, this ceremony not only marked the change of command but the start

of a differenthapter in relationship with iraq. >> some 50,000 american troops will remain to train iraqi forces wit a deadline for a full withdrawal by the end of next year. >> the white house is setting the stage today for tomorrow's first direct peace talks between the israelis and palesnians in two years. president obama met with israel prime minister. presidenobama has warned hamas that acts of terror will not stophe u.s. and its allies in their pursuit of peace. the president will meet with palestinian present mahmoud ahmadinejad today. all sides will gather late tonight. >> the maker of botox is paying a big fine to settle a federal investigationnto the marketin of its drug. >> plus a difficult choice for woman who have a so-called breast cancer gene. how effecti is surgery. >> and weatherwise poor air quality taking over the bay.

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and deliver results. meg whitman. for a new california. >> we have breaking news from silver springs, maryland, where one man has taken a hostage in the discovery channel's headquarrs. reports to people inside the building say the man has a gun and possibly explosives strapped to his body. >> employees inside the building e-mailed messages to friends saying police removg them to upper floors away from the area where the shooter is believed to be. and the s.w.a.t. team is now trying to evacuate them. we're going to continue to keep an eye on the story for you on

abc7news.com. >> meantime let's move on to some encouraging news today. there's a report out today encouraging for won who have muted genes who underwent radical surgery to prevent breast or ovarian cancer. that decision may have saved their lives accoing to a study in this week's journal of the american medical association. sharon has their stories. >> sandra cohen refers to herself not as a survivor but a pre-vivo >> i'm at say high risk for getting breast cancer. right now i've never had cancer so i survived it. >> cohen has had breast karn in her fami and has the brak gene mutation. that mutation makes it more likely for her to get cancer. >> it was like a time bom and my time's running out. >> sandra decided to have her breast and ovaries removed even though she's never been diagnosed with cancer. >> anyone hungry? >> yes. >> until i'd had kids and so i

was thinking about what their future could be, i felt more stroly that i needed to take action and do something. so that they wouldn't live in fear. >> somef her friends thought it was a radic step but the new sty validates the diffict decision that she and thousands of other women have already made. >> researchers looked at nearly 2500 wom with the genetic mutation. of the 247 women to chose to undergo preventive mastectomies, not one developed cancer. of the 900 that decided to preventively have their ovaries and tubes removed only ten got cancer. compare that to the 1600 women who chose not to undergo any surgery. 98 of them were later diaosed with cancer. pat kln is looking at the new study. she learned she had the braca mutation at age 23. >> i'm not gonna jump to surgery because it's just not right for me. i don't know if i wanna have kids. so i'm 31. i need to figure that out on my

own with my husband. >> personal decisions thousands of women now face. each one choosing therapy own course and hoping for the very same results. a long, healthy life. >> abc news, new york. >> the maker of the wrkle smoothing drug box will pay $600 million to settle a five-year long federal investigation. the irvine-based company will plead guilty to misbranding for marketing techniques that led doctors to use botox for unimproved uses. those include treatmen of headaches, pain and cerebral palsy in children. >> mike ahead with the forecast. >> taking in some heat today and possibly poor air quality. today won't be the hottest day. cooler over the holiday weekend and we' take a look at the east coast and what's gonna happen with earl. >> a what's falling from

apple's tree today. steve jobs' big i-pod announcement.

this morning apple ceo steve jobs announced what he's calling the biggest change in apple's i-pod lineup ever. the redesigned i-pod shuffle

brings back buons combining them with a voice-over feature introduced in the first generation shuffle. the newnan no, a smaller cheaper version for streaming mies and tv shows over the internet. as i mentioned, t nano has a touch screen. >> it's very tiny. you can holit in your hand like this. it's amazing. and super easy to use and it's so small, we're able to put a clip on it, too. so it's instantly wearable. >> david louie is inside the apple event and doing a live blog. you cafind it on the front page of our website abc7news.com. >> so much fun, huh? mi mike nicco, you were right. >> you can tell stepping outside already. you can look behind you guys. the flags are not moving in san francisc that means the air conditioning

is off. here's a beautiful picture from sutro looking down on san francisco and all the way over to the east bay hills. not too much haze right now but some poor air quality may develop in the santa clara valley in afternoon. let's talk about those temperatures. and already 79 in san francisco. same in san jose. low to mid-80s in the east bay valleys. 68 half moon bay. the cool spot 72 in san rafael. around the montey, look at that, 80 watsonville, salis inland, 84 gilroy and low to mid-60s monterey and santa cruz. these temperatures that you're seeing are anywhere from 13 degrees warmer tha 24 hours ago and san francisco and ha moon bay. 15 napa, 8 oakland and menlo park. to 10 in concd. what a jump we're seeing right now. so that leavesur highlights. the sunsne where the warm weather today and tomorr. the poor air qualy that's going to come with it. we'll have cooling throug the labor day weekend. talking about a significant drop in temperatures for the holiday. today look how much above

average from concord at 9:00 and everybod in dole digits, san jose, santa rosa, hayward, san francisco 10 to 15 degrees warmer than average. let's start in the south bay where we have upper 80s sunnyvale and milpitas, low to mid-90s everybody else. san jose 92. on the peninsula mid to upper 80s. head to the south bay, los gatos 92. the coast, 76 pacifica. daly city 75, 85 downtown san francisco. sausalito also the m-80s. low to mid-90s through the north bay vaeys. sunshine at your beaes and low to mid-70s. check outhe 80s from 85 at richmond to about 88 hayward. low 90s for the rest of the east bay shore with mid to upper 9s in the eas bay valley. wouldn't be surprised if brentwood does hit 100 today. morgan hill, gilroy, look at temperatures, santa cruz, mid-70s sunshine and monterey and carmel. remember the heat wave last week. remember the office in at&t

park. 'repeat at 7:15? about 82 degrees. tempatures manageable tonight. upper 50s in the north bay valleys. san francisco, half mo bay low to mid-60s for the rest of us. let's take a look at earl. he's still chunking along the caribbean. 125 mph winds heading to the northwest at 17. the trk has jumped to the west putting places like outer banks of north carolina in jeopardy, new york city and boston over the weekend. back here at home you would like a breeze probably. not at fast when temperatures get even warmer tomorw. the cooling hits the coast on friday. we drop about 10 degrees around the bay on saturday. about 10 to 15 on sunday. by tuesday we drop nearly 15 to 20 degrees from the coast to our inland neighborhoods. >> all right, mike, thank you. >> you bet. >> up next, the clearest images yet offf

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we're going to pass along this inrmation on a job fair abc 7 is cosponsoring. employers tell us they have 150 jobs or so t fill. it starts in about half san hour and runs to 4:00 at the nelson community center in sasso city. for more information call 1-888-the-job or go to abc7news.com/jobs. >> today at oprah at 4:00, the

search to find the mo talented kids. at 5:0 the south ba community that's under attack by coyotes. also -- that's the wrong picture there, sorry. not getting a good night's sleep? moms know about that. new evidence finds it's more harmful than you think, espeally one particular gender. that story at 5:00. >> a front row seat of history. >> an expedition surveying the titanic wreckage has captured the clearest imes yet of this ship since date of its discovery. >> it sank 1912, lies two miles below the ocean surface. the expedition titanic has used robotso take hours of video of the wreckage. >> they're using new hi-def technology to give us the clearest images of the railing and the anchors. the tea will compare all the footage into a 3-d map. to get images like that when it's so deep and dark.

>> really tough. >> so incredible. a look at the weather. >> our sky may be a little murky tomorrow. could be poor in the east bay valleys with the santa clara valley and the heat will peak tomorrow. only goedown from there. >> thanks for the heads up. apprecia it. >> thanks for watching. "who wants to be a millionaire" this droid has evolved to do even more. noit integrates your work e-mail, so you can be oked up to everything you need to do. now it does ghz speed on a more intuitive keyboard.

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